Whenever I step up to a new distance in trail running, it seems as if tight calf muscles follow me for at least two days after doing a long run at my new distance. I set about finding out what could be causing my tight calf muscles, and if they were any solutions. I’d had enough of just suffering through the first 4 to 5 weeks of training before the problem seems to all of a sudden disappear as quickly as it arrived.
Your calf muscles are tight after a run it is because they are too weak for the training load you are placing on them. The short-term cure is to use a foam roller to release the tightness deep in the muscle tissue. The longer-term cure is to strengthen the calf muscles, hamstrings, and glutes.
Let’s take a detailed look at exactly what causes the different types of calf muscle tightness and what all the potential solutions are so that you and I can both be relieved of calf muscle tightness in the future.
What Causes Tight Calves After A Run
Getting tight calf muscles after a run is a protective mechanism forcing you to slow down before you get a more severe injury. Tight calf muscles are caused by muscle weakness in the calves, glutes, and/or hamstrings relative to the training load you are putting on them.
Most often calf muscle tightness is caused by weak muscles. The tightness that we feel in our calf muscles is a protective mechanism to get us to slow down and stop running for a while before things escalate into a full-blown injury.
I’m not saying that your calf muscles are necessarily weak in an overall sense. Calf muscles can be strong in isolation but relatively weak in comparison to the training load we are putting on them during a specific workout or long run.
This is why when training at a new distance for a couple of weeks you’ll notice that your calf muscle tightness will tend to dissipate simply because your calf muscles get stronger while you are adapting to your new running distance.
How To Use Training Volume To Reduce Tight Calves
You can reduce tight calf muscles by taking a recovery week where your training volume is reduced by 50%. This will place your training volume back within the range that your calf muscles are strong enough to handle. After the recovery week, gradually increase training volume again.
As I have just mentioned our calf muscles get tight when they are weak in relation to the new training load that we are placing on them. Just trail running can be enough to strengthen our calf muscles as long as our training volume increases are moderate.
If we increase our running volume too quickly then calf tightness happens when our new run volume exceeds our current calf strength.
The solution here is to increase our training volume gradually and when we experience some calf muscle tightness we should take it as our body’s way of telling us to slow down. What we need to do is back off on our training load for a couple of days to a week or so in order for our calf muscle strength to build up enough to be able to handle the higher training load.
This is something that I learned from my coach during the course of my marathon training. The program was split into blocks of 4 weeks each. During the first three weeks of a 4-week block, I would be increasing my training volume by about 12% each week for the first 3 weeks. However, during week number four I would reduce my training volume to 50% of what it was during week number three.
Week number 5 would be the first week of the next training block and the training would be identical to what I had done on week two of the previous block. I would then build again for 3 weeks before the next recovery week. That allowed me to increase my training volume over time without getting calf muscle tightness or injuries.
How Calf Strengthening Exercises Reduce Calf Tightness
Calf muscle strengthening exercises such as calf raises done at least once a week will better enable your calf muscles to cope with your training volume and reduce the chances of calf muscle tightness.
The most common strengthening exercise for your calf muscles will be calf raises. I find the exercise more effective when I can target all parts of my calf muscles.
I begin with a set of calf raises with both feet straight/parallel. My second set will be with my toes pointing out and my heels together. Set number three will be with my toes together and my heels pivoted outward. I finish off the series with a set of single-leg calf raises on each foot, keeping the foot straight. Usually, I will do 12 to 15 reps per set and do the entire series 3 times.
I find that doing these types of calf exercises at the very minimum of once or twice each week, it is sufficient to increase the strength of my calf muscles to be able to handle the training volumes that I throw at them from a trail running perspective.
How Glute And Hamstring Exercises Reduce Calf Tightness
When a runner’s glutes and/or hamstrings are weak, the training load is transferred to the calf muscles creating overload-induced tightness. The solution is to incorporate glute and hamstring exercises into a strength training routine.
One thing that we need to know about our calf muscles is that they are planter/flexor muscles above the ankle joint. This means that they help us push off at the beginning of each stride. Obviously, we need to push off the ground on each stride otherwise we wouldn’t be able to run. However, that push-off from the ground needs to originate through the glutes and hamstrings muscles in order to be effective and efficient.
If our glute muscles and hamstrings are weak then the load that those muscles are supposed to be carrying is transferred to our calf muscles which then creates overload and leads to muscle tightness.
The solution is to do additional glute and hamstring strengthening exercises. This is so that our glutes and hamstrings will be able to handle the forces and loads when we push off on each running stride.
What I do when I’m in the gym to do my calf muscle strengthening exercises, is I use the same gym session to strengthen my glute muscles and hamstrings in one training session. This has allowed me to improve my overall running form and reduce my chances of running injuries dramatically.
How A Foam Roller Can Reduce Calf Muscle Tightness
When a runner is suffering from tight calf muscles, using a foam roller is more effective than static stretches as the foam roller massages deep within the muscle tissue to release the tightness.
All of these measures that I’ve mentioned so far are great as ways to prevent you from getting calf muscle tightness after a long run. However, if you’ve been out on your long run and you are now suffering from calf muscle tightness, there is a solution that does not involve just sitting around idly for two or three days patiently waiting for the tightness to loosen in your muscles.
What you should do is get into a routine of using your foam roller. Static stretches are less effective on your calf muscles if they are already tight. Regular foam rolling will reduce the tightness more quickly and allow you to get back to your running training up to a day earlier than you would otherwise be able to.
How A Forefoot Running Form Increases Calf Tightness
Runners who land on their forefoot and do not allow their heel to touch the ground at all on each stride risk calf muscle tightness as the entire impact force is carried by the calf muscle during the time the foot is in contact with the ground.
Most runners are heel strikers, in other words, their heel strikes the ground first as their foot lands. However, some of us are midfoot strikers. While others land more on their forefoot, in other words they land on the balls of their feet.
If you tend to land on the balls of your feet, it’s important that your heel comes down to gently touch the ground before lifting again to begin the next stride. If you stay on the balls of your feet, in other words, your heel never comes down to the ground, that means that your calf muscle takes the full strength of your weight-bearing the entire time that your foot is in contact with the ground. This will drastically increase the amount of training load on your calf muscles and definitely cause muscle tightness.
The same applies to those runners who tend to land on the midfoot as I do. What I need to be consciously aware of, is that my heel does make a contract with the ground while I’m running so that I can reduce the amount of weight that is being carried by my calf muscle. This is especially true when I’m running uphill.
How Footwear Choices Reduce Calf Muscle Tightness
Runners who switch to zero drop running shoes without gradually reducing the amount of heel drop of their shoes over time will experience calf muscle tightness and even injury. Adding heel wedges into their running shoes will relieve the tension in the calf muscles.
Minimalist/zero drop running shoes have become massively popular of late. However, if you have a tendency toward calf muscle tightness, you might need to slightly raise your heel – in other words, have slightly more heel lift for the short term.
Instead of rushing out and buying a brand new pair of shoes that you will just be using for a relatively short period of time to alleviate your calf muscle tightness, you can instead get some heel lift wedges from your local pharmacy. These little heel wedges should be sufficient to lift your heels just that tiny little bit in order to be able to alleviate the pressure on your calf muscles and reduce that calf muscle tightness.
If you want to run in minimalist shoes then read my article here on Trail Run Planet about how to transition to zero drop running shoes.
How Worn Out Shoes Cause Calf Muscle Tightness
Worn-out running shoes have less cushioning under the heels and this reduces the heel-to-toe drop of the shoes, placing additional strain on the calf muscles. This causes calf muscle tightness. The solution is to replace worn-out running shoes before the tightness escalates to a more serious injury.
A final factor that can cause calf muscle tightness is if your current pair of running shoes are starting to get worn out. When shoes become worn out the cushioning under the heel becomes soft which means that the height of your heel drop will be reduced. In some instances, there might even be a negative heel drop where your heels inside your shoes are down below the height of your toes. This places additional strain on your calf muscles on each and every single step that you take and will almost always create calf muscle tightness.
The solution to this problem will be to replace your running shoes. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred this will resolve the calf muscle tightness that you have been experiencing.